Consomme Printaniere

A garnish soup: the stock does the work, the vegetables are cut small and cooked separately so the broth stays clear. Three pints serves six as a first course.

• Clear stock is the whole dish"Clear stock" here means a consommé that has been clarified and strained, not merely a strained broth. If the base is cloudy the finished soup will be cloudy, since nothing later in the method removes sediment.
• Cook the vegetables apartThe vegetables are simmered in salted water and drained before they meet the stock. That is deliberate: boiling raw root vegetables in the consommé releases starch and clouds it. Keep to the two-stage method.
• Twenty minutes is for the roots onlyCarrot and turnip cut small want fifteen to twenty minutes, but asparagus tips and shelled peas need three to five. Adding them "an equal amount" at the same time, as written, will collapse them; start the roots first and drop the green vegetables in near the end.
• Vegetable cutter or scoopsA period vegetable cutter was typically a set of small tin stamps in assorted shapes; the scoops were small ball or column cutters. A small melon baller or a 1/4-inch dice gives much the same effect. Aim for pieces of roughly equal size so they cook evenly.
• MeasuresThree pints is 6 cups, or about 1.4 litres. The recipe's own quantity is two small carrots and a turnip plus an equal amount of asparagus tips and peas, which is a generous garnish for that volume of stock.
• Season at the endConsommé concentrates as it stands, and the vegetables arrive already salted from their cooking water. Taste after the final ten minutes rather than before.
• ServingServe in warmed bowls or cups immediately. Held on the heat, the peas grey and the asparagus tips go soft, and the point of the dish is the contrast between clear broth and bright, distinct vegetables.